I hear a lot of people mention this book. What is it? Is a collection of suttas; commentaries?

I am on the path, however not yet advanced. Any opinions or insights I share are meant entirely for discussion purposes and in cases where people might find them beneficial in whatever way. Since I am not advanced on the Path, I cannot guarantee that what I say will always necessarily be 100% true or in line with the Dhamma. However, having had an extremely interesting life with a wide variety of different (many of them deep) experiences, I hope that anything I share will be of use, provide food for thought, and inspire interesting and beneficial discussions.

I am on the path, however not yet advanced. Any opinions or insights I share are meant entirely for discussion purposes and in cases where people might find them beneficial in whatever way. Since I am not advanced on the Path, I cannot guarantee that what I say will always necessarily be 100% true or in line with the Dhamma. However, having had an extremely interesting life with a wide variety of different (many of them deep) experiences, I hope that anything I share will be of use, provide food for thought, and inspire interesting and beneficial discussions.

bodom_bad_boy wrote:The best introduction to the suttas of the pali canon in my opinion.

Seconded. It's very well organized and Bhikkhu Bodhi writes several pages to introduce each section. Every Buddhist bookshelf should have a copy of this one.

"To reach beyond fear and danger we must sharpen and widen our vision. We have to pierce through the deceptions that lull us into a comfortable complacency, to take a straight look down into the depths of our existence, without turning away uneasily or running after distractions." -- Bhikkhu Bodhi

"No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man." -- Heraclitus

In the introduction bodhi stated that his purpose in writing this book was two fold: first for those who are not yet acquanted with the suttas who feel the the need for a systematic introduction as the "Nikayas apear to be like a jungle - entanglng and bewildering, full of unknown beasts like the ocean". Second is for those "already acquanted with the suttas who still cannot see how they fit together in an intelligable whole. Individual suttas are comprehensible in themselves. but the texts in there totality appear like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle scattered across a table". This book has definitely helped me in those two regards. I dont feel it necessary anymore to read all of the nikayas after reading this book. Plus it can get quite expensive collecting all those "albums" lol.

To study is to know the texts,To practice is to know your defilements,To attain the goal is to know and let go.

Thanks for the summary of Bhikkhu Bodhi's intent behind the compilation.

Just be mindful though that as with any other selected compilation of suttas, you will be getting that particular editor or translaters view of the Pali Canon and what is important to them... and as we know from interacting with others, the degree to which certain people prioritise different suttas (let alone the Pali Canon as a whole) means we should at least be aware that BB is providing a systematic framework that accords to his understanding, not the systematic framework that is in any way official, absolute or exclusively correct.

To keep with the music analogy, pop into a forum of one of your favourite bands and start up a conversation on what tracks should be on the "ultimate greatest hits CD"... see if you can find any 2 people who agree on both the tracks and the sequencing!

retrofuturist wrote:Just be mindful though that as with any other selected compilation of suttas, you will be getting that particular editor or translators view of the Pali Canon and what is important to them...

Of course, but Bhikkhu Bodhi seems to have been quite careful in his selections. After studying that collection, I find that when I read other Suttas they usually turn out to be an expansion on concepts that are at least touched on in that collection.

One of the big differences between that collection and most others I am aware of is that it covers quite a breadth, including Suttas on worldly things such as "how to be a good son/wife/husband/king/etc" and a small selection of devotional and mythological passages, as well as the key Suttas on meditation, dependent origination, and so on that most collections seem to focus on.

By the way, I don't think your comparison between "albums" and "greatest hits" is particularly accurate. The organisation of most of the Nikayas is rather obscure and fragmented (the Samyutta Nikaya is the only one that has any real organisation by subject). It's more like Bhikkhu Bodhi's selection being a play list selected from an Ipod's worth of tracks...

mikenz66 wrote:By the way, I don't think your comparison between "albums" and "greatest hits" is particularly accurate. The organisation of most of the Nikayas is rather obscure and fragmented (the Samyutta Nikaya is the only one that has any real organisation by subject). It's more like Bhikkhu Bodhi's selection being a play list selected from an Ipod's worth of tracks...

That may be true to a point with regards to the internal structure of each nikaya (though I'm sure the original editors had their reasons), but viewed across nikayas, the SN has a different feel to the MN which has a different feel to the (frustrating) DN and so on.

There is certainly a difference is feel, but my point was that the SN is the only place where there is much value in reading Suttas sequentially. I'm most familiar with the MN, and there are various ways of approaching that, including Bhikkhu Bodhi's talks (which were the basis of the structure of "In the Buddha's Words"), and reading lists by Shaila Catherine which we've used locally to study it.

Of course, there's nothing to stop you just reading the Nikayas in sequence, but if you do that then, apart from a few groupings, the topics are largely in a random sequence (apart from in the SN).

"For a disciple who has conviction in the Teacher's message & lives to penetrate it, what accords with the Dhamma is this:'The Blessed One is the Teacher, I am a disciple. He is the one who knows, not I." - MN. 70 Kitagiri Sutta